The Roanoker - Sept/October 2021 - 12

Strange Days of Roanoke
The Whistler on Grandin Road
written by Nelson Harris
John was considered strange and avoided by most when he lived in Roanoke, but he captured the international spotlight in 1994.
H
e whistled everywhere
he went, but not out of
happiness. The repetitive
notes were part of the audio
hallucinations that had
plagued John for years.
It was 1967, and John's mental illness
had taken its toll. His schizophrenia and
the myriad of accompanying symptoms had
drained his wife, emptied his bank account,
and ended his promising career. Divorced
and unemployed, John moved to Roanoke
that summer to live with his widowed
12 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2021
mother Virginia. He was 39.
Virginia had moved to Roanoke in the
1950s when her husband, an electrical
engineer, was transferred from Bluefield,
West Virginia, by Appalachian Power
Company. Educated, graceful, and religious,
Virginia had been a school teacher. She
and her husband moved to a modest
apartment at 1821 Grandin Road, next
door to Raleigh Court Presbyterian Church.
In 1956, Virginia's husband became ill,
battling fatigue and nausea throughout that
summer. In September, her husband suffered
a massive heart attack and died. Fortunately,
Virginia's daughter Martha and her husband
lived nearby in an apartment on Westover
Avenue. Meanwhile, her son John had earned
a Ph.D. from Princeton University, married a
physicist and was by all appearances enjoying
a career in academia.
In the late '50s, John and his wife Alicia
visited Virginia regularly on holidays, with
Martha occasionally taking her sisterin-law
to shop downtown. While John
behaved oddly, all seemed to tolerate his
eccentricities. In time, however, John began
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The Roanoker - Sept/October 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The Roanoker - Sept/October 2021

The Roanoker - Sept/October 2021 - 1
The Roanoker - Sept/October 2021 - Cover2
The Roanoker - Sept/October 2021 - 3
The Roanoker - Sept/October 2021 - 4
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The Roanoker - Sept/October 2021 - Cover3
The Roanoker - Sept/October 2021 - Cover4
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